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An alien probe controls and disables Captain Picard, who wakes up as "Kamin," a resident of the planet Kataan. While the crew of the Enterprise tries to jar the probe's influence, "Kamin" lives through the final, dying decades of his homeworld in the span of approximately twenty minutes in the form of an interactive "ancestor simulation".

He quickly learns that he is not on a holodeck simulation; in fact, he is no longer on the Enterprise, and nobody has even heard of the Enterprise. Going outside, he meets a councilman, Batai, who knows him and seems to be a friend. He confusingly explains to him, when Picard presses him, that the woman is his wife Eline, the community is named Ressik, and the planet is Kataan. He leaves Batai to walk around, convincing himself it's not a dream.

He arrives back "home" at night to a worried Eline, and discovers more about this "new" existence. He is an ironweaver who enjoys playing his flute but has never been able to master it. Picard also learns that the world has never made contact with any alien species. Eline tries to convince him to come to bed, but then Picard sees her necklace, a miniature of the probe. She says Kamin gave it to her.

Back on the Enterprise, Riker calls sickbay for help, as Picard has fallen into a coma.

Dr. Beverly Crusher arrives with Ogawa and Martinez and discovers Picard is undergoing tremendous neurological activity – his neurotransmitter levels are off the scale. It seems the alien probe has locked itself onto Picard. Dr. Crusher advises Riker against destroying the probe in that the captain may be injured, so they wait.

Meanwhile, five years have passed on Kataan, and "Kamin" has become integrated into his new society, though has not let go of his past life. He suggests to the visiting administrator that atmospheric condensers are needed to survive the extended drought they are currently experiencing. His ideas are rejected, but Batai notes that it is the first time Kamin has spoken as a member of the community in years. Later that evening, Batai and Kamin sit outside while Kamin plays Frère Jacques on his flute. After Eline asks Batai to leave for his home, she and Kamin begin to plan for a family, starting with the construction of a nursery.

Back on the Enterprise, Geordi La Forge has launched a probe to follow the alien probe's ion trail back to its source. Data has determined a method of disrupting the beam, and they make plans to implement Data's idea and cut the connection to Picard.

Once again, several years have passed on Kataan. Kamin and Eline are in the middle of a "naming ceremony" for their second child, named Batai (for their late friend, who had passed a year before). Right after the ceremony, as the reception begins, Kamin suddenly collapses. On the Enterprise, Ogawa finds Picard is suffering somatophysical failure with the connection cut. Dr. Crusher tries in vain to save Picard with delactovine and cardiac induction, but he needs the beam back. Data reestablishes it, thereby stabilizing Picard's condition.

Ten years have passed on Kataan, and Kamin, together with his adult daughter Meribor, have found that the soil in their yard is simply dead. The sun's radiation has sterilized the dirt making it incapable of supporting life, a process that is implied to be wiping out all plant life on the planet. Kamin jokingly tells her that he should have filled her mind with trivial things instead of devoting so much time to scientific study of things she can't change. He mentions Dannick, a man who is in love with her. Meribor ominously says she should marry him sooner rather than later, and Kamin agrees that she should live for the present.

La Forge has managed to trace the alien probe's path back to the unmapped Kataan star system in the Silarian sector. It contains no habitable planets as the star went nova approximately one thousand years earlier.

Many more years have passed on Kataan, and Kamin is visibly elderly and now on the council himself. Using his telescope, he has discovered that the drought will continue indefinitely, and the planet may be doomed. Eline comes and encourages Batai to tell him he wants to concentrate on his music instead of school. Kamin is startled, but ultimately accepts his decision, musing after he leaves that there may not be much time to follow any dream.

The next day, he argues with a government administrator, who tells him in confidence that the government scientists had come to the same conclusion two years earlier. Kamin pleads with him that an evacuation, even of a handful of people, must be attempted, but the pained administrator points out to Kamin that they simply do not have the technological capability for spaceflight of that magnitude, having only recently started launching unmanned missiles into orbit. Reluctantly, the administrator shares with Kamin that there is an effort underway to save "some" piece of the civilization, though he will reveal no more about it. Kamin's son Batai arrives and informs him that something is wrong with his wife Eline, and the pair rush home. Shortly afterward, Eline dies a natural death, and Kamin grieves.

Years later, a very elderly Kamin is playing with his grandchild, Meribor's son, Kamie. He laments that his grandson deserves a long and full life, but like the rest of their world, he will not survive. Kamin reluctantly goes along with the pair to join everyone in the community to view "the launching", which only he seems not to know about. Kamin asks, "What is it they're launching?"

His daughter, Meribor: "You know it, father. You've already seen it."

"Seen it? What are you talking about? I haven't seen any missile."

Batai: "Yes, you have, old friend. Don't you remember?"

Kamin turns to see his old friend, Batai, but in the prime of his life. Batai explains, "You saw it just before you came here. We hoped our probe would encounter someone in the future – someone who could be a teacher, someone who could tell the others about us."

"Oh… oh, it's me… isn't it? I'm the someone. I'm the one it finds. That's what this launching is – a probe that finds me in the future!"

"Yes, my love…"

Kamin's family, at the end of the Kataan probe simulation

Stunned, Kamin turns and sees Eline, glowing in youthful beauty, with the rest of his family. She says, "The rest of us have been gone a thousand years. If you remember what we were … and how we lived … then we'll have found life again."

"Eline… "

As the missile launches…

"Now we live in you. Tell them of us… my darling…"

Picard regains consciousness on the bridge of the Enterprise as the alien probe breaks contact by ceasing its beam. After the initial disorientation, he discovers that he has lived decades in the course of twenty to twenty-five real-time minutes. Riker orders the probe brought into a shuttlebay with a tractor beam onboard the ship for further study. As Picard approaches the entrance to the turbolift to accompany Dr. Crusher to sickbay, he instinctively raises his right hand to touch the door mechanism he remembers from Ressik.

Later in his quarters, as Picard attempts to adjust back into his real life, Riker reports that the probe has completely shut down as it was clearly designed to do. He then delivers to Picard a small box found inside the alien probe in his quarters. Picard opens it to find the flute which he still vividly remembers from his life as Kamin. Riker leaves and Picard, full of emotion, plays the tune he had played at his "son's" naming ceremony.

Ronald D. Moore commented, I've always felt that the experience in 'Inner Light' would've been the most profound experience in Picard's life and changed him irrevocably. However, that wasn't our intention when we were creating the episode. We were after a good hour of TV, and the larger implications of how this would really screw somebody up didn't hit home with us until later (that's sometimes a danger in TV – you're so focused on just getting the show produced every week that sometimes you suffer from the 'can't see the forest for the trees' syndrome). We never intended the show to completely upend his character and force a radical change in the series, so we contented ourselves with a single follow-up in "Lessons". (AOL chat,1997)

Only a few scenes were filmed on the regular sets. The bridge and Picard's quarters are the only parts of the Enterprise-D that are seen.

Jay Chattaway composed the music for this episode, including the Ressikan flute solo played by Kamin and Picard. Chattaway later expanded this piece into a six-minute orchestral suite for The Best of Star Trek, Volume One. The Ressikan melody has similarities to the Scottish tune Skye Boat Song, also known as Speed Bonny Boat.(citation needed • edit)

The long view on Ressik was a matte painting created by Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 3, p. 19) For the 2012 remastered version of the episode the view was recreated digitally by Max Gabl, staying as close to the original as possible. As to the reasons for doing so, Gabl has explained, "I think most of them are total recreations. Because the planets we’re looking at from the original [TNG] series are very low-res and blurry. There’s no way to put more detail into those, so it’s basically all recreation. Mike Okuda tells us exactly what we need in there, and it’s just back and forth – playing it and seeing what the details are going to look like and then I put them in, compare with the old, [Mike will] look at it, I’ll make the changes and that’s how it goes." [2]

Before still accepting his identity as Kamin, Picard is practicing on the flute the melody of Frère Jacques, a French song he sang while climbing the turbolift with the children in "Disaster".

Kamin pleads with Meribor to "make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again." Picard would later echo those words to Commander Riker following the destruction of the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek Generations.

Stewart remembered, "I'm having the earliest makeup call of any actor in the history of Star Trek. My makeup call on Monday was 1:00 am, my set call was 7:00 am. So I left home round about midnight." ("Departmental Briefing Year Five" ("Production"), TNG Season 5 DVD special feature)

Picard's flute appears in a deleted scene from Star Trek Nemesis, during which Picard and Data discuss the crew going their own ways.

Picard's telescope appears to be a Dobsonian reflector, a design popular amongst home telescope builders.

According to Jay Chattaway, the Ressikan flute was chosen for its photogenic ability because a typical flute is held in front of the actor's face. His composition for the Ressikan flute became one of the most requested pieces in the Paramount Pictures library. ("Departmental Briefing Year Five" ("Music"), TNG Season 5 DVD special feature)

A humanoid statue seen in Kamin's building is a large replica of a marble Cycladic idol.

Patrick Stewart nominated this episode as the greatest acting challenge he faced in the seven years of The Next Generation. ("Mission Overview Year Five" ("The Inner Light"), TNG Season 5 DVD special feature)

Peter Lauritson named this episode as definitely one of the favorite Star Trek episodes. ("Departmental Briefing Year Five" ("Production"), TNG Season 5 DVD special feature)

Michael Westmore noted that "The Inner Light" was a show Patrick [Stewart] should have won an Emmy for. ("Departmental Briefing Year Five" ("Production"), TNG Season 5 DVD special feature)

Entertainment Weekly ranked this episode #3 on their list of "The Top 10 Episodes" to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. [3]

Michael Piller named this episode (along with "The Measure Of A Man" and "The Offspring") as one of his favorite TNG episodes, "because they had remarkable emotional impacts. And they genuinely explored the Human condition, which this franchise does better than any other when it does it well." (AOL chat,1997)

Writer Peter Allan Fields praises Patrick Stewart's performance but has the highest praise for guest actress Margot Rose; "She was absolutely superb, no ifs, ands or buts! I was grateful to have written something that an actress of that caliber had brought to life. She was excellent. I had never seen her before. I saw dailies, so I saw aspects of her performance that, unfortunately, the audience never got to see because the show ran long. They had to take out seven minutes." (The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine issue 21, p. 25)